‘We Could be Rich’: Unemployment, Roadblocks and the Rhythms of Hydrocarbon Work among the Guaraní of the Argentine Chaco

Abstract

In the Argentine Chaco, indigenous Guaraní lives are deeply entangled with the oil and gas industry. In response to the hydrocarbon sector's shifting dynamics, unemployed Guaraní have found innovative ways to make claims and mobilise for temporary employment. This article emphasises the perspectives of these mobilised populations and describes the political difficulties that precarious labour forces confront. It also draws attention to the temporalities of extraction and to the accompanying rhythms of flexible employment. In doing so, it extends the concept of precarity to highlight continuities between the impermanence of employment and the instability of mobilisation.